


He Never Left...

by BadWolfBoy



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, BAMF Stiles, Dread Doctors - Freeform, Everyone Is Alive, F/M, Getting Together, Good Peter Hale, Good Theo Raeken, Jealous Derek Hale, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Malia Tate is a Hale, Pack Bonding, Pack Dynamics, Pack Family, Pack Feels, Pack House, Pack Mom Stiles Stilinski, Peter Hale & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Post-Nogitsune, Slow Burn, Spark Stiles Stilinski, Stiles Stilinski & Theo Raeken Friendship, Theo deserves better, emissary stiles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:53:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27355312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadWolfBoy/pseuds/BadWolfBoy
Summary: A year after the Nogitsune and the whole pack has moved in together with the exception of Kira and Liam. Stiles still struggles with what he did while under the Nogitsune’s control. Now he is dealing with what the Nogitsune left behind when an old friend comes back to town and brings his own problems with him.
Relationships: Aiden/Cora Hale, Allison Argent/Isaac Lahey, Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Ethan/Danny Mahealani, Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken, Scott McCall/Kira Yukimura, Theo Raeken & Stiles Stilinski, Vernon Boyd/Erica Reyes
Comments: 8
Kudos: 134





	1. Just Another Morning at the Hale House

**Author's Note:**

> Derek never gave up his alpha powers, Erica and Boyd did leave and were kidnapped but came back, Allison and Aiden never died, Hale house rebuilt.

Stiles startled from his sleep, gasping for air. He knew that had he been asleep any longer he would have been screaming bloody murder to wake himself up. Luckily, Derek had made sure that all the bedroom walls and floors were soundproof. Stiles knew he wasn’t thinking about his nightmares of the Nogitsune and rather the fact that most of his betas would be sharing rooms with their significant others but it still made Stiles relieved that he didn’t have to be the one to bring it up.

Derek had decided that it was time to rebuild the Hale house about a month after they had gotten rid of the Nogitsune and he and Scott had finally gotten their heads out of their asses and started to form a real pack. With Derek and Scott as co-Alphas, Peter (after many arguments about who would be best) as their Second, and Stiles as the Emissary. All the Betas at the time of the pack forming had moved in. They got the second story of the house, the couples sharing rooms. 

Of course Erica and Boyd shared a room, and it was easy moving them in because their parents had still been pissed about them “running away” for 3 months. Issac, having already been adopted by Derek had Allison move in with him, shocking almost everyone that Chis had let her move out after she had almost died. Ethan had a room to himself although most nights he shared it with Danny who technically wasn’t part of the pack but might as well be. Aiden and Cora and shacked up. Malia got her own room. Jackson and Lydia had moved in extremely quickly, both wanting to leave their parents as soon as humanly (or werewolfly) as possible. That left the top floor to Derek, Scott, Peter and Stiles. They had the biggest rooms because they were highest in the pack and they said so. Well, Technically Stiles had the smallest room in the house but that was because he gave up a lot of space so that he could have an office for all his emissary things. He had lined the room and door with mountain ash so that when the door was closed the wolves couldn’t bother him. Stiles' office had a wall filled with all the books he had collected over the years, on the other side of the room he had his paints and drawings. Those along with his mother’s guitar were the real reason for the mountain ash but nobody had to know that.

Stiles looked over at the clock on his desk. 4:16 am. That’s 3 hours of sleep. He looks down at his hands and drums his thumb along his fingers, counting them. 10. Flip them over and count with the opposite index finger. 10. He’s awake.

Feeling excited that he got any sleep at all today, Stiles quickly but quietly went down the two flights of stairs to get to the training room. He flicked the light on and walked over to the schedule. He had insisted that Derek let the betas know ahead of time what they were doing. He definitely didn’t want to know so that he could set up for whatever they were doing that day. 

Tuesday October 12th - Sparring

Sighing, Stiles walked into the kitchen to boil some water in the kettle for his coffee. He never makes a full pot this early, it wakes up the wolves with both the smell and the noise so he just makes himself a far too sweet cup of instant coffee and gets to putting out the mats for the sparring that will come after school. 

Stiles knew that Derek had the whole day at the house and could definitely set up by himself but he was up now and if he was protecting the walls from the beating they would get from betas being thrown, mostly by Jackson, then he would. Once the room looked as it did every other sparing day Stiles grabbed his now empty cup and made his way back to the kitchen.

He looked at the time on the stove. 4:50 am. Plenty of time to cook lunch. He grabbed the pots and filled them with water and put them on the stove to boil. Then getting out the steamer Stiles got to cutting up carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. Once he had enough he dumped all the vegetables into the steamer and checked the water. Now that it was boiling he could add in the elbow pasta. He then walked over to the fridge to grab the chicken that they had leftover from last night. Soon the vegetables and pasta were done so he got out containers to put in lunch bags. Dividing the food into the 12 containers he then put the lunch bags into everyone’s backpacks, he walked back into the kitchen and washed the dishes. Looking over at the stove again. 5:37. 

Stiles walked back up to his room to go take a shower. He wiped off the steam from the mirror and looked at himself for the first time that morning. He was pale, his face lacked its normal colour. Was it really normally coloured at this point though? Not really. His eye bags were almost as dark as they were when he was possessed but that was his new normal. He looked over to we’re his neck connected to his shoulder, the lichtenberg figure was still there, good. He quickly got dressed into a black t-shirt, blue jeans and his signature red hoodie. Looked over to the clock. 5:57. Time to start breakfast.

Stiles made his way downstairs again trying to act like he had just woken up in case any of the werewolves were up and could hear him. He grabbed two cooking trays and filled them with bacon, then put them in the oven to cook. He then started a good pot of coffee and got out two mugs. First preparing his own, once again too sweet creamer and sugar he then added a small amount of the unsweetened plain creamer into the other mug for Peter and got started on scrambled eggs.

Peter then came down, first as always. “Good morning Stiles, need any help?”

This was always how they started the day. “I think I’m good unless you want to get out the cereal, juice and milk.”

Peter walked over to the cabinet and pulled out all the open cereals, set them on the counter under where they kept the bowls and then got the milk and various juices out from the fridge. 

Peter always wanted to help Stiles when he could tell that he had already been up for hours. Which was seeming to be everyday as of late. Soon the coffee was done and Peter was putting on the second put without being prompted. As Stiles pulled the bacon out of the oven he started to hear the betas making their way downstairs.

Stiles then started boiling a pot of water for Derek’s tea. Who would have thought that every morning when Derek woke up his first thought was a green tea with honey. 

Soon the kitchen was crowded with hungry teenagers. Stiles finished off his third cup of coffee, grabbed a new mug and poured a black coffee making his way towards the stairs. Stiles had also grabbed Derek's tea and put it on the coffee table next to his recliner as he walked past. 

Forgoing knocking on Malia’s door he walked in and put the coffee next to her bed then walked into her bathroom to turn on the shower. He came back and she was groaning about having to wake up at this “ungodly hour”. He just pulled her up so that she was sitting, let her have a sip of her coffee before getting her (his) shirt off and getting her into the shower. 

Walking back downstairs, Stiles grabbed a piece of bacon and another cup of coffee. He then spoke up so that everyone could hear, “It’s Tuesday so that means Lacrosse after school today. Are we planning on all staying behind to watch practice or am I giving my keys to Allison?”

Lydia was the first person to respond, Being the most awake. “I’m pretty sure that seeing as we always stay for practice you can assume that we will be staying for practice.”

“I’m just checking, no need to bring out the ice queen this early.” He smiled back at her. 

The Pack quickly went back to their own conversations, Stiles didn’t mind that he wasn’t included in any of them. He loved to just watch as the once constantly fighting to try to kill each other teens fight over the last slice of bacon. 

That’s when he heard it, Peter leaned into Derek who was quietly reading in his chair. He then spoke in perfect Spanish, _“You should really tell him. The longer you drag it out the worse it will be when he finds out.”_ Derek’s eyebrows furrowed in response.

Stiles never learnt Spanish, not well enough to understand that. How the hell did he understand that? Whatever, didn’t matter. He’d rather tell Peter off for annoying his alpha this early in the day. Without looking up from his drink he spoke, _“Peter don’t you think it’s a little early to be annoying Derek? It’s not like either of you have jobs, why not secretly talk when we’re out?”_

As Stiles went to take another sip of his coffee he noticed that everyone was staring at him, “Do I have something on my face?” He asked, not understanding why they all looked so shocked. 

“Stiles,” Scott spoke up, “you don’t know Spanish.”

Stiles just blinked into his mug. That had happened a few times since the Nogitsune, not knowing a full language but a few things that there were no records of. It was great for his library, horrible for his mental state. 

He noticed that the pack was trying their best not to think about where that knowledge could have come from. He knew that they were thinking exactly what he was, ‘when the hell is Stiles going to be just Stiles again?’ Stiles was finally starting to expect that the answer to that question was never. 

Stiles looked up to Scott with a small smile and took a deep breath in while putting down his mug so he could count his fingers. 

He drums his thumb along his fingers, counting them. 10. Flip them over and count with the opposite index finger. 10. Again.


	2. An Alpha's Mate(?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Painfully short chapter- just explains what Derek and Peter were talking about

Derek saw when Stiles figured out that he was using the Nogitsune’s knowledge. He saw his eyes go slightly glassy with the memories of what happened while he was possessed. Of course his co-Alpha and betas couldn’t just leave it alone. 

“Stiles, you don’t know Spanish.” That single sentence from Scott was enough to get Stiles to believe he was dreaming. Again.

He watched as Stiles gently put down his mug on the counter in front of him and slowly brought his hands up in front of his chest so he could count his fingers. 

Once all the betas saw what he was doing they tried their best to go back to their previous conversations. Everyone knew that he wasn’t going to be able to respond to Scott. He never did when the Nogitsune was brought up. 

He’s still counting his fingers. He’s probably counted them 20 times already. It doesn’t matter. Derek knows that it’s not enough. He grabs the book that Stiles had been using the night before to do some research on the fae. Derek opens the book to a random page and hands it over to Stiles. He takes the book without a second thought, too busy trying to make sure he’s not dreaming to think about what’s going on around him.

Derek watches as Stiles starts to read, a small smile appears on his lips with a gentle sigh. He looks up from the book to look Derek in the eyes. The smile doesn’t quite meet his eyes and his normal shine is gone. 

“Thanks Der.” He says quietly, almost as though he doesn’t want to admit how much it had helped. 

Not waiting for a response Stiles just grabbed his mug and downed the rest of his coffee in one sip. He then made his way over to the sink to start dishes. 

He was so perfect. The way he would take care of all the Betas as if he had been doing it his whole life. How he would, on most days, quietly hum the tune of whatever song was in his head at the time. Flawlessly transitioning to another song as that popped into his head. But not this morning, today he was doing the dishes with intent. He didn’t look around or yell at the betas for being “messy little shits” that he “doesn’t know why he loves them” 

Soon it was 7:15. That means the teens had to start their long drive to school. Well, they say it’s long but 20 minutes could be worse. They always left this early in case of traffic even though most of them could run there through the preserve without breaking a sweat. 

Derek noticed when Stiles went to grab his keys there was a hesitation. He saw how Stiles desperately couldn’t handle school. But he just took a deep breath, grabbed his keys and tossed them over to Boyd. He always did when he felt like he couldn’t drive, Erica always looked slightly butt hurt that Stiles never trusted her with his baby.

Once all of the teenagers were out of wolf hearing range Peter spoke up again, “Well that’s unfortunate, how are we supposed to communicate while the others are around now?”

“You could just not try to convince me to mate my emissary while there is a house full of werewolves to hear.” Derek said while walking over to the sink to clean his mug. “Or just stop altogether.” 

Peter rolled his eyes and sighed, “He’s a smart boy Derek, he will figure it out when he gets to pack dynamics in his endless reading on all things supernatural.” 

Derek said nothing, hoping that Peter would drop the subject altogether. It was never that easy.

“He acts like an alphas mate, he is an alphas mate, he just doesn’t know that. You are going to need to tell him sooner or later, but the longer you wait the worse it will be.” 

Derek looked over to his uncle, “He’s still 17.” 

“Only for another month,” Peter looked Derek in the eye and tried his absolute hardest to convey the feelings of regret he had for not telling his mate sooner, “then, you should tell him. He’s human, so if you don’t he’ll find someone else.” 

Derek saw the reason behind it, and knew that Peter’s mate was not his wife but someone else who had moved on by the time Peter tried to tell. He wanted to tell Stiles with his entire being, but Derek couldn’t. 

-

Derek went into the training room, it was all set up for sparing. He sighed to himself. Stiles didn’t have to do this. 

He shouldn’t do this.

Derek hates that Stiles feels like he has to do all of these things for everyone. Derek knows it’s an alpha mate thing but he still wishes that Stiles would take care of himself rather than doing things for the pack.


	3. Why Can't You Sniff Out Sexuality?

Stiles quietly got into the back of his jeep with Malia, Erica and Boyd took the front seats. Malia held onto his thigh, she always tried to give him as much physical contact as possible when she could tell that he wasn’t having a good day. Stiles almost was like a parental figure to Malia and was her best friend. She used to try to hold his hand, and although he never complained, she saw how fidgety he would get when he couldn’t count his fingers. 

Stiles didn’t remember getting to school, it was definitely the right choice to let Boyd drive today. They all got out of their respective cars and walked into the school to meet up with Liam, Mason and Kira. only Kira was at their normal meet up spot. Scott walked straight up to her and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. He smiled down at her, “I missed you.” 

“You saw me yesterday.” she pointed out.

“Far too long ago,” he sighed.

She quietly giggled, “I’m trying to convince my parents to let me move in with the Pack but you know how my Mom is.”

“I’m just asking if you can tell weather the new guy is gay or not.” Stiles heard Mason say, probably to Liam. He turned around to where he heard Mason.

“I can’t tell someone's sexuality by smell, what’s so hard to understand about that?” Liam was so exhausted, even since Mason found out about werewolves he had been asking every dog question that Stiles had only ever thought to himself. Stiles couldn’t really judge this one though, he basically asked Scott the same thing when he was in love with Lydia.

“New Guy?” Lydia spoke up, “Is he any cute?”

A low growl came from the werewolf that was now pulling her further into him. 

“Oh calm down Jax, you know I love only you.” she gave him a quick kiss, “But you also know I need the gossip.” 

Mason cleared his throat, “Yeah, I thought he was pretty cute. I think he’s in Senior year like you guys.”

“I didn’t know you were into older guys.” Danny said.

“In this small of a town, I’m into any other single gay guy.” Mason sighed

\--

Stiles couldn’t concentrate all morning, all he could think about was the fact that he now knew Spanish. Maybe he knew more. He didn’t want to find out but he had to know.

After writing down the homework that he had to do for his chemistry class the bell rang for lunch. Stiles decided that he needed to know, he went to the library instead of the cafeteria. He walked straight to the section of books in other languages.

Stiles grabbed the first book. French.

_“Death, my son, is a good thing for all men; it is the night for this worried day that we call life. It is in the sleep of death that finds rest for eternity the sickness, pain, desperation, and the fears that agitate, without end, we unhappy living souls.”_

No. He understood.

He grabbed another. Polish.

_“Take whatever you can from others, and when there is nothing left, forget about them.”_

No, no, no. 

He saw a language he really didn’t want to understand. Japanese.

Please no.

_“Young people get the foolish idea that what is new for them must be new for everybody else too. No matter how unconventional they get, they're just repeating what others before them have done.”_

Shit. 

He knew it. He knew it all.

Of course he did. There was no way he could be normal for just one day. He couldn’t breathe. He had to get out of there.

Stiles was running. He had to get out of the school. He felt hot, wet tears running down his cheeks as he opened the door. He was running as fast as he could into the preserve. He didn’t even realize where his leg were taking him until he saw the stump. 

The Nemeton. Of course. He could never get away from it. He constantly felt it pulling him. 

He collapsed right in front of it, crying. He hated the stupid thing so much. He wished it would be destroyed. He wished it would burn.

His hands balled into fists. He raised his hands above his head, and while still on his knees, crying, he brought his fists down fast and hard. His hands collided with the Nemeton over and over again. He wanted to kill it, to burn the stupid stump down.

He screamed. Screamed about all of his hate of what happened to him, what he did to all those people, how he almost killed his friends, his dad. 

Then he felt heat under his arms. Stiles quickly jumped away from the Nemeton as fast as he could, eyes still blurry from tears. He quickly wiped them away. Then he saw it, the Nemeton was engulfed in flames. 

He stared at it until it burned out, luckily that was fairly quick. Once the flames had died out he saw the burn marks on it. Did he cause those? He wanted it to burn. He looked to his hands.

He drums his thumb along his fingers, counting them. 10. Flip them over and count with the opposite index finger. 10. Again.

\--

It took Stiles about a half an hour to walk back to school. He had stopped crying as soon as he saw the Nemeton burning but he knew the wolves would still be able to smell it, or maybe they could only smell the smoke. That didn’t matter, either way he would be asked questions.

He wasn’t ready for questions, mostly because he didn’t know what had happened. 

The bell rang. Thank god he thought.

Next class was one with only Lydia, thank god she's just a Banshee and doesn’t have the super sniffer.

Walking into class he took his normal seat. Soon the redhead sat herself beside him. “You weren’t in the cafeteria today.” she stated.

“Yep” he responded, popping the p and making sure that he didn’t meet her gaze. 

She gave a light sigh, “Fine, I'll tell the wolves to not go hunting for you.” She pulled out her phone and went to a group chat they had made so that Stiles couldn’t see what they were talking about. Normally he would be pissed about her using the ‘Don’t Bring Up The Notitsune’ chat but today he really didn’t mind not knowing what they thought he could be doing. “We were really worried.”

“Sorry.” he whispered.

They both stayed quiet for the rest of class, surprisingly Stiles actually managed to pay attention for the whole thing and even finished his homework.

\-- 

Next class was horrible, too many people from the pack. Scott kept looking over at him with puppy dog eyes. Stiles could tell that he wanted to ask Stiles how he was doing or why he smelled like tears and fire but Stiles refused to acknowledge it. 

Soon the final bell of the day rang, thank god, now he only had to get through Lacrosse and then he could go home and research the shit out of trees randomly combusting. 

Lacrosse was fairly uneventful other than the pack avoiding tackling him, he would never say how grateful he was for not being thrown to the ground by super strong werewolves.

Once practice was over the boys got changed and everyone filed into their cars. The wolves had training so Stiles could cook without being distracted. He got out everything he needed for shepherds pie and got working.


	4. The Omega at The School

Soon the food was finished and the pack was coming into the kitchen, Stiles started passing out plates and everyone got to the table to eat. They all spoke about their days and how their classes went. Stiles didn’t speak up, he only ate in silence, he hadn’t stopped thinking about what happened at the Nemeton. He ate half of his food and then got up to start working on homework. Grabbing his backpack and sitting next to Malia he looked for into his bag. 

“Shit” Stiles whispered more to himself than anyone else.

Malia looked up from her History work, “What’s the matter?” 

“It’s nothing, I just forgot my chem textbook at school.” he looked over to the clock on the wall, “it’s still early enough that the janitors will still be at school.”

Stiles quickly got up and started walking to the front door, he grabbed the keys to his car but when he went to turn around he was stopped by Derek. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“School,” Stiles responded, trying, and failing, at pushing past the werewolf. “I won’t be gone for long, there's no threat out there, and I need to get my homework done unless you want me to fail my last year of highschool.”

Derek huffed, “Fine.” he looked like he wanted to say more but at least he had moved out of the way. Stiles gave him a grin and then walked out of the house to the car and started driving back to the school.

\--

Stiles got into the school with no problem, you’d think after all the break-ins that they would get better security. He walked to his locker and got out his textbook, closing the locker he heard a growl.

Stiles quickly turned around and looked down the hall. He saw two glowing blue eyes coming from a shadow in the poorly lit school hallway, “Really? You all didn’t believe that I could handle getting to the school and back without being babysat?” he asked the eyes.

All he got in return was another growl, “Come on, why don’t you come a little closer so I can see who Derek is using as his personal henchman or henchwoman today.”

Once again no response, they were not coming closer, they weren’t moving away and suddenly Stiles wasn’t so sure that this was anyone from the pack.

“Jackson?” nothing. “Peter?” nothing. “Ethan? Adien? Malia?” no response. 

Then the realization came to him, “You’re an Omega aren’t you?” only a growl in response. “Hey, that’s ok. I know some great Alpas in the area if you’re looking for a Pack.”

He could tell that his heart rate was way too high and if the Omega was crazy enough they would see that as a threat. “I’m going to call them ok? I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to help.” he slowly got his phone out of his pocket, and started to dial the phone when the Omega finally moved.

She had long black hair that was tangled, her clothes were in shreds, she definitely hadn’t been in a Pack for at least 5 months by the looks of her. She grabbed Stiles' phone from his hand and crushed it, she bared her teeth and roared. 

Shit.

Stiles ran. Moving as fast as he could, not looking behind him. He was going to die because of some stupid Omega, that’s just his luck.

He went to turn a corner when he was slammed against the wall. Hissing in pain he looked at his attacker. She didn’t look like she knew what she was doing, god, now he really wished that Derek had sent someone to babysit him.

He felt claws dig into his forearm, he closed his eyes and waited for the real pain to start. The claws were quickly slicing through his skin, then he realized that there was no one holding him in place.

Stiles opened up his eyes and saw that someone had pulled her off of him and now had their hand around her neck, claws extended. The person's hand pulled back, ripping the Omega’s throat out.

Stiles could finally catch his breath, “Thanks, although I’m pretty sure I had that under control.” Stiles huffed out.

A laugh that tiles didn’t recognise rang out, “Yeah, sure looked like it,” the man said. Stiles was starting to feel his heart rate speed up again. He looked over to Stiles, eyes still glowing yellow. He looked somewhat familiar but he couldn’t place it. “Are you ok, Stiles?”

“How do you know my name?” Stiles asked quietly, almost not wanting to know the answer. It was more often that the guys that didn’t like the Hale-McCall pack knew his name.

The guy laughed again, “You really don’t recognise me? I guess I can’t be shocked, I have changed since the fourth grade.”

The fourth grade? Who did he know back then that he didn’t still know? Then it dawned to Stiles, “Theo?”

“Yes,” he held his hand out to Stiles, “now, are you ok?”

He held out his hurt arm to Theo, “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Stiles looked at this boy that he had known all those years ago. He looked different, worse for wear, then again the same could be said for himself. Theo was looking at the gashes in his arm with his wolf eyes, probably because he sees better with them.

“This looks pretty bad, unless you really are a werewolf and I'm not just smelling others on you you should probably go to the hospital to get it stitched up.” Theo said looking into Stiles eyes.

Stiles looked down to his arm, “Really, it’s not that bad. Thanks for saving my ass.”

“It’ll have been for nothing if you don’t go to the hospital and let them clean it out.” Theo said walking back to where Stiles had dropped his textbook, “Survive an omega attack, die of infection.” He bent down to grab the textbook, “Come on, I’ll take you so you can keep pressure on it.”

Stiles just nodded and followed Theo out to the truck in the parking lot. They had been driving for a few minutes before Stiles spoke up, “So is the lycanthropy thing new or was I just too young to notice you howling at the moon?”

Theo snorted at that, “New, if I were a werewolf back then there’s no way you would have missed it.”

“So what happened?” Stiles asked, still keeping the pressure on his arm.

“It was a few years back,” Theo started, “I was skateboarding in my neighbor's empty pool. I just couldn’t land a trick, soon it was dark out. I wiped out and fell to the bottom of the pool, then I realized that I didn’t hear the board come down. I look around and see these bright red eyes, then I’m being bit.”

Stiles nods along to the story genuinely interested.

“I didn’t actually get to meet the alpha that bit me, by the next full moon the entire pack had been wiped out by another pack.”

“So you’ve been an omega all that time?” Stiles asked. Damn, if he had been he was doing really good for himself.

“Yeah, that’s actually why I’m back. I heard about a pack that somehow has a True Alpha and a Hale Alpha working together.” Theo knew his stuff, holy shit.

Then they were pulling into the hospital parking lot, “Really? Is the pack really that well known?” Stiles said coming out of the car and walking towards the ER.

“I guess, I think I heard mostly because I was actively looking. I may not know a lot of all things wolfy but I know that being an omega is dangerous. That’s why I convinced my parents to bring us back.”

They walked in the doors and Stiles was immediately being reprimanded, “Stiles, what the hell happened? Why are you always the one to get hurt?”

“Hey Melissa,” he waved his hand over to where Theo was standing beside him, “you remember Theo right?” he said, trying to change the subject.

She looked over to him, “Hi Theo,” she then looked right back at Stiles, his deflection did not work. “Now answer the question, what happened?”

Stiles released his arm and shoved it towards the nurse, “Just some Omega, Theo thinks it needs stitches.” he said casually.

Melissa looked shocked between Stiles and Theo, settling on looking at Theo she asked, “You know?”

“Yes,” he said, quickly flashing his eyes.

“So,” Stiles started, “how long do you think this is gonna take?”

“Come on,” she pulled Stiles to one of the beds, Theo following behind them. “Are you here to be the painkillers?” she asked. He gave a small smile and nodded. “Alright let's get started.”


	5. Hot New Guy is, in Fact, Gay

12 stitches and 20 minutes later Stiles and Theo were walking back to the truck, “Thanks, again. For stopping the Omega and for bringing me to get stitches” 

Theo smiled at him, “Really, it’s not a problem. I’m just glad I got to you in time.”

“What were you doing at school anyways?” Stiles asked, now wondering if it was pure luck or if somehow it was planned.

“I had been there since the start of the day, transferring schools mid semester really sucks.”

Then, for the second time within the hour, it made sense, “So you’re the new hot guy.” Stiles said before he realized what he was saying. He slapped a hand over his mouth, “I mean that one of my friends had seen you in the halls and said that there was a super hot new guy and he was wondering if you were gay. Not that I'm saying that you're hot. I mean objectively you are. I'm just not the one who said that. Except now I have. Now I'm rambling, stop me whenever you feel like I’ve embarrassed myself enough.”

Stiles looked over to Theo who was just smiling, he then quickly looked at Stiles then back to the road. “You can tell your friend that I’m Bi if he really is that curious.” 

“Oh, me too,” he said quickly. 

Then they were pulling back into the school parking lot, “So is there a good time for me to meet with your Alphas so that I can announce my presence in town and ask to join the pack?” Theo said as he parked, as if they didn’t just come out to each other. 

Stiles shook himself out of his thoughts, “I should be able to get you a meeting in the preserve tomorrow after school. I’ll find you at school to confirm? I’d ask for your number to do that the easy way but the Omega crushed my phone.” 

“Sure,” they both got out of the truck, “Now I better get rid of that body, take care and make sure to don't forget your textbook.” With that Theo walked back into the school.

Stiles went to his jeep and tried to start processing the fact that both his childhood best friends were now werewolves.

\--

As soon as Stiles got out of his car he was grabbed by a very red eyed Derek, “Who hurt you?”

“Dead Omega, no need to worry.” Stiles said brushing Derek off.

“You killed an Omega?” Isaac asked from behind Derek.

“I didn’t say that,” Stiles said all too casually, according to all the protective growls he got from the pack. “In other news, I learnt who hot new guy is. You remember Theo Reaken?”

“From the fourth grade?” Scott asked, “He’s back? I thought after his sister…” 

“So this guy killed the Omega for you?” Derek cut Scott off.

“Yes, also why is it that all of my childhood friends are werewolves?” Stiles asked.

“Theo became a werewolf?” Erica asked, “He didn’t seem like the type to ask for it.”

“No, more like a Scott situation. Except his Pack was all killed before his first full moon.” Stiles had all the wolves following him closely as he went into the house and sat down to start on his homework. “He asked me to set up a meeting so that he could announce that he’s in town, is tomorrow after school good?”

Scott looked over to Derek, Derek nodded back. “Yeah tomorrow's good.”

“Ok, awesome. Can I do my homework now?” Stiles asked, today had gone on for way too long.

They all disbursed, leaving Stiles at the table with his chemistry work.

\--

An hour later stiles was done with his chemistry, he closed his book and put his bag by the front hall where the pile of school bags always resided. He sat down on the couch where everyone else was, having done their homework while Stiles was out. They were watching The Animaniacs, Stiles couldn’t be more proud.

He was greeted by Isaac wrapping his free arm around his shoulders and Lydia’s hand on his thigh. Lydia then leaned into Stiles and whispered in his ear, “So, are you gonna tell us any more about your wolf in shining armour?”

“Lyds, really?” he said, extremely caught by surprise. He then noticed that all the teenagers had looked over to him, extremely interested. “There’s not much to say, he saved my ass.”

“Then took you to the hospital even though you definitely protested,” Isaac chimed in, “a lot probably.”

“Is he really as hot as Mason said?” Erica asked, not mockingly, she was genuinely curious.

“I don’t know, maybe.” then Stiles thought of what else Mason had said, “Oh and someone needs to say that yes he is gay.” They all looked at him, shocked that he even asked, “well bi, but that still gives Mason his chance.”

“You actually asked?” Lydia looked like she couldn’t be more proud while the wolves were slowly looking more and more nervous. Little did Stiles know that one of their Alphas was growling under his breath “You sure that you were asking for Mason and not yourself?”

“Why would I care?” Stiles asked, he had never come out to any of them. Oh god, the only person he’s ever come out to is Theo. Guess now is as good a time as any, “I mean just because I’m bi too doesn’t mean I wanted to jump his bones as soon as I found out he’s into guys.”

“Damn it!” He heard from Isaac, “You couldn’t have waited three more weeks man?” Isaac then pulled out his wallet and gave a twenty dollar bill over to Lydia, soon followed by Erica, Jackson and Danny.

“Or hey, maybe yesterday!” Erica sighed, “One day off! One. Day.”

“I’m sorry, what did you bet on?” Stiles asked, looking between the teens that had just made Lydia 80 dollars richer. 

“When you were going to come out.” Lydia said, way too casually.

“You bet. On me coming out. How long have you known?” he asked, almost hating himself for not thinking about how the wolves would know.

“Oh come on, after all the flirting between you and Jax here?” Lydia cherped.

“How about when you asked if you were attractive to gay guys.” Danny chimed in.

“I was in love with you for years,” Erica said, “I noticed some things.”

Stiles was too relieved, he laid back, “I was stressed about this?” he laughed.

“Now shut up and watch Yacko, Wako and Dot call Death ‘Daddo’.” Lydia said while turning back to the tv and patting Stiles on the thigh.

\--

A few hours later everyone had decided it was time for bed, Stiles just started to clean up the living room. After bringing all the cups to the sink he started to fill the dishwasher.

“I was really worried about you.” came a deep voice from behind him.

He turned quickly, clutching onto his chest, “God Derek, you need a bell.” He took a second to catch his breath, “I’m sorry I worried you, I would have called but the Omega broke my phone.”

“I’ll get you a new one,” he said seriously, “Do you trust him?” Derek asked abruptly.

“Hmm?” 

“Theo, do you trust him?” Derek clarified.

“I used to, back in elementary school, I haven't known him for a while though,” Stiles said honestly, “He’s going to ask to join the pack. You don’t need to accept him just because he was friends with a few of us years ago.”

Derek nodded at that, obviously not trying to show how good it felt that Stiles was putting the pack above an old friend.

“Maybe he could have a trial period with the pack,” Stiles suggested, “have those of us who have never met him get to know him, maybe have him come to training if you trust him enough for that. Of course that wouldn’t be for a while, you don't want him knowing pack weaknesses unless he’s in the pack.”

“That makes sense, tomorrow we should talk to the whole pack before school starts. I’m going to run that idea past Scott.” Derek had become really open to suggestions in the past year. It’s been a good year for everyone it seems, Stiles can’t ruin it with telling Derek about what happened at the Nemeton today. Derek went to go up the stairs, he then turned back to Stiles, “try to get some sleep tonight, ok?”

Stiles soluted Derek, obviously not trying to lie. Derek was obviously annoyed by it but he didn’t say anything, he just went upstairs to talk to Scott. Stiles went back to cleaning.


	6. Theo and The Dread Doctors

One week Ago

Theo was looking into the cell that they had some random girl in, he’s pretty sure she was just a werewolf. Boring. “What do we need a werewolf for?” he asked the Dread Doctors.

“She is going to hunt down the boy that survived the Nogitsune, you will save him to gain his trust.” The female doctor told Theo, she always answered his questions.

“Why do I need his trust? Why wouldn’t you just take him like normal?” wouldn’t that be easier, he thought.

“That way you can take the powers that were left behind from his possession, slowly, without killing him.” they never had any concern for who lives and who dies.

“Why is he so special?” Theo asked, he had meant to keep that to himself.

“He is the only survivor of a dark kitsune possession, we want to know what makes him different from all the others.” one of the other doctors supplied. Theo knew that any more questions and he would be punished, he just nodded and went down the hall to his room. He laid down on the mattress, he’s going back somewhere. They never returned places, Beacon Hills is different. Beacon Hills was his home. He’s going back home.

\--

Theo hated the plan. Let the wolf possibly hurt the ex-Nogitsune, couldn’t that be bad for the future? What if she killed him before Theo got there? 

Why was he so worried? He had done this plenty of times before. All he had to do was put on a show.

Theo walked into the school where the wolf was hunting down the ex-Nogitsune, that’s when the smell hit him. It felt like home, like something that he once loved, felt comfort in. It was Stiles.

Theo had no idea that the ex-Nogitsune was also his ex-friend, he had so save him.

Theo rushed forward and killed the wolf long before he was supposed to, the plan was that she was to hurt him a bit and then Theo came in but after finding out who Stiles was he had to abandon the plan. He killed the wolf quickly then moved to help Stiles, Theo didn’t have to act worried. 

How was he going to be able to hurt Stiles?

Theo tried to follow the plan as best he could, he was friendly with Stiles, he got a meeting with the Alphas. 

After disposing of the body of the wolf he drove back to the Dread doctor's new hideout, he was filled with anger. Theo was not going to let the Doctors hurt Stiles, it didn’t matter that he had done this to so many others without hesitation, Stiles was different, Stiles was good.

“I can’t do it.” Theo said as he walked in.

“I knew bringing him would be a bad idea.” the tallest doctor said.

“He’s said that before, we can just make him forget again,” the doctor with the cane said.

Theo was confused. He had always listened without hesitation. Why wouldn’t he? “What do you mean forget again?” he asked.

Before he could think pain ripped through his body. The tallest doctor had a cattle prod to his side, highest voltage.He could feel his entire body tencing from the electricity coursing through him. Soon he was out.

\-- 

When Theo woke up he was strung up by chains around his wrists. He fought against them, they wouldn't break. He could tell that his feet went quite touching the ground.

Suddenly he remembered all the other times he had been in this position before. 

When the Doctors had first taken him, they had him like this for weeks, maybe months, the pain made it all blend together. They had told him that he would listen to them. He would follow them and kill for them because they gave him power. He would kill his own sister because they had told him to. He fought at first but he broke after a while. They had pumped some drug though his body that hurt all the way into his bones. 

He broke. They erased his memory of it ever happening so he would think he helped them because he wanted to.

The next time he remembered this happening he was a few years older and they had told him to kill a successful Cimera. Well, as successful as he was.

They only ever killed the unsuccessful ones, the ones who would die anyway. He refused. He told them that he wouldn’t kill someone who should live and become like him.

They strung him up again, until he broke and said he would do it. They took away the memory of the torture and left him agreeing. 

It happened over and over and over.

Now that he is seeing all this he knows that he will never get free, even if he is a good person under all the brainwashing. He’ll never be able to escape them. 

His body felt like it was ripping itself in two now, whatever drug they were using worked, and they knew it. 

“I’ll do it!” He cried out “I’ll do it just stop, please.”

They took away the memory of him ever thinking that the dread doctors were the enemy.

He was theirs.


	7. His Wolf in Shining Armour

Stiles finished cleaning the main floor of the house and then went up to his room. Knowing that there was no way that he was going to be able to sleep tonight, Stiles changed into sweatpants and his ‘painting shirt’. He had learnt his lesson after almost ruining his favorite Star Wars shirt with a pallet full of neon oil paints from when he was trying out pop art so now when he was painting he would only ever wear a shirt that used to be plain grey, now it was more of a pinkish grey with a few small spots of paints all over the front and somehow a big splotch of forest green on the back.

Walking into his office, making sure to close the door so he wouldn’t be interrupted, he grabbed one of his bigger canvases. He looked at it not quite knowing what he should paint, then something that Lydia had said earlier, ‘Wolf in Shining Armour’, it sounded beautiful. Stiles grabbed his pencil and started sketching out a wolf, howling, deep in the forest. The wolf had its head up towards the sky with sharp, medivive like armour covering its shoulders and back.

Once Stiles was happy with how the sketch looked he grabbed his paints and started mixing, first he put down the background. Trees and dirt, boring and repetitive but it occupied his mind. If Stiles was painting the same tree over and over again he wasn’t thinking about how he understood at least 4 languages that he definitely didn’t know before. 

Now he was done the background and it was only midnight. Stiles went to mix the colours for the wolf’s fur. He originally thought about painting the fur black like he had seen Derek’s fur when he had seen him fully transformed into a wolf. He quickly decided that it would be better if he painted the wolf’s fur in browns like Theo’s hair. He added a few gold-like shades, silver for the amour and then a small bit of bright yellow for the eye.

\-- 

It was just after 3:00 in the morning when Stiles had finished the painting. He took a step back to look at it now that it was all done.

It was perfect. The moonlight hitting the fur and the armour, the angle of the head, how the eye was shining. It was all perfect.

It was too late to go to sleep now so Stiles took off his painting shirt, replacing it with the one he wore the day before, grabbed his red hoodie again and made his way down the stairs to check the training schedule for the day.

Wednesday October 13th - Tracking

Stiles sighed. He hated getting things ready for tracking days. Stiles went to grab his running shoes and started out into the preserve. He started on a slow jog, going towards the river that was about 20 minutes away from the house. He zig-zagged around the trees making the trip almost twice as long as it was normally. Once he got to the river he unzipped his bright red hoodie and threw it across. He waded into the water, shoes and all, and dipped his entire body under. He knew he had to if his scent was going to drop somewhere but the chill of the water was almost too much. 

After getting out of the water at the other side he grabbed his hoodie out from the dirt and threw it over his shoulder to continue his trek. Another 10 minutes later and Stiles was starting to feel like this was going to be too easy for the wolves, especially Jackson, he was way too good at tracking for anyone’s liking. He stopped, looked around, there was nothing that he could see that would help throw the wolves off. He looked up for an estimation of what time it was, That's when he saw a thick enough branch to climb from one tree into the next, and then into the next one. 

Stiles smiled to himself and started climbing the tree, he scraped up his hands and arms slightly on the bark of the tree. Not enough to make him stop, he climbed until he got to the sturdy branch and walked other to the other tree, not looking down. It doesn’t matter how many times you get hurt fighting the supernatural, falling out of trees still hurts as shit. After he had gotten about 10 trees over he decided that he had found the perfect spot to leave his hoodie. Hanging the bright red fabric on a small branch on the tree he started the climb down.

Once he reached the ground he continued jogging in the same direction that he was going in before, not turning around to go back to the house for another 12 minutes of running. Turning around he went on another terribly long run in zig-zags back to the house, not opting to go into the river again.

Stiles got back to the house around 5:00, shit, 2 hours of running. Oh well, time to start training.

Stiles thought for a while about how he should wake everyone up. He thought a bit about going upstairs to knock on their doors politely but he was tired and knew the best way to get them up. Ginning slightly to himself, Stiles opened up his mouth and screamed bloody murder, not too loud though, he figured he'd let Allison and Lydia sleep some more.

The living room was instantly filled with glowing eyes and claws. They were all looking around for whatever had made him scream, he just clapped to get their attention, “Alright, now that everyone is up we can start tracking.” he said. All the wolves deflated and started walking towards the back door, grumbling about how early it was and how they shouldn’t scare them like that.

Stiles ignored them and walked over to the kitchen and started boiling some water for Derek’s tea and then put on the coffee pot for himself and Peter. 

“You’re bleeding.” Derek huffed out. He walked over to Stiles and grabbed his arms, he looked at the scratches on his hands and started to glare and Stiles heard a slightly angry rumble come from Derek’s chest.

“Yes Derek,” he looked to where the wolves had left, “can they still hear?” he asked mostly to Peter who was not acting like a caveman. He shook his head no, “I climbed a tree and bark is sharp sometimes.” Derek growled at that.

“You should be more careful,” he said. Derek then dropped Stiles hands and walked out of the room and into the bathroom. He grabbed the First-aid kit and walked back into the kitchen and looked between Stiles and a chair at the small 3 person table they had put there for homework or when Derek and Peter ate lunch while the teens were at school.

Sighing, Stiles moved over to the table and sat down, “They’re not that deep. I’m sure that I’ll be fine Big Guy.” Even as he said it he had put his arms unto the table, palms up.

Derek opted not to respond, instead he got the alcohol wipes out from the kit and started to clean out the small cuts that were littering Stiles forearms and hands.

There was too much tension in the room for Stiles, he knew what Peter was thinking about. He had been trying to avoid the topic all night but now it was morning, “French, Polish and Japanese too.” Stiles said not looking anywhere but to the claw marks among the small scratches, “I might know more than that but that’s all I could test before I ran out of the school.”

Peter hummed, “I was going to say that you could leave setting up for the dangerous training to those of us who heal fast.” Stiles looked up to Peter, he had that stupid grin on that made Stiles know that Peter was definitely lying but he still meant it. It was idiotic that he felt better even though he knew that he was being lied to. 

Stiles looked to Derek who hadn’t stopped cleaning his arms, Derek looked up to meet his eyes, “You’re not him.” he stated plainly.

Stiles gave a small smile, “I know,” he knew the wolves could hear he was lying, he couldn’t bring himself to care all that much.

Once Derek was finished Stiles stood up and went over to the coffee pot, grabbed himself a coffee and started on lunch for the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to get this out but I'm going to try to post more regularly or put out big chunks every once and awhile. hope you enjoyed it<3


	8. Meeting The New Wolf In Town

Seeing as the wolves were still out tracking, the humans made their way to school, they met up with Kira, Liam and Mason as per normal. What wasn’t normal was Theo waving at Stiles from down the hall. 

Mason looked like his eyes were going to come out of his head, “You know Hot New Guy?” he asked, obviously jealous.

“Yes, so do Scott and Erica. He was in our class back in the fourth grade,” Stiles wanted to talk to Theo so bad but he knew he couldn’t before Theo had his talk with Derek and Scott. He sighed, “He can also hear you, don’t you love werewolf hearing.” 

Mason looked like he wanted to duct tape his mouth. “Really?” he asked hesitantly.

“Yep,” Stiles stated plainly, “cheer up dude, I’m sure you still have a chance with him.”

Mason smiled at that, then the bell to start the day rang. Everyone disburt to their classes and said they’d see each other at lunch.

\--

When Stiles got to his Chemistry class he went to his normal spot to see that the normally empty spot beside his was now filled with the town's newest werewolf. 

“I’ve gotta say, I’m pretty sure that sniffing out where someone sits is definitely new to me.” Stiles whispered.

A small laugh came from Theo, “Is it so wrong that I wanted to be near you?” he questioned quietly. 

Stiles turned to meet Theo’s eyes and gave a small smile, “After school today you’ll be meeting the Hale and McCall Alphas. Do you know how to properly ask for permission into a pack or to stay on pack land?”

“No, I didn’t even know there was a proper way to ask,” Theo leaned back in his chair slightly, “I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been an Omega the entire time you’ve been a wolf.”

“I’ll show you at lunch,” Stiles went to grab his textbook from his bag, when he looked up he saw Theo grinning, “did you really think I’d let you make a fool out of yourself?” 

\--

At lunch Stiles and Theo met up outside on one of the school's park benches, Stiles went over the proper phrasing until he was confident that Theo would not make a fool out of himself. 

Afterwards Stiles said that he had to go see the pack and that Theo couldn’t come with him because he had yet to talk with the towns Alphas, Theo understood and said that he would see him after school.

\--

School was out in 5 minutes and Stiles was nervous. He knew that he really didn’t need to be but he didn’t need any conflict right now, not when he had set the Nemeton on fire with his mind and still had yet to tell anyone.

From beside him Erica was reassuring him that everything would be fine, “You have no reason to be stressed, Batman.”

“I know, I know.” he repeated. The bell rang and Stiles was out in a flash, the pack met up right outside the preserve and made their way in together. 

They got to the agreed upon clearing and waited for Theo. It wasn’t even 2 minutes later when he came into the clearing and bowed his head. Stiles couldn’t help but smile to himself. 

“Alpha Hale, Alpha McCall,” Theo started, ”I, Theo Raeken, Omega; request that I may stay on the Hale-McCall pack’s land and to be integrated into your pack.” It was just as they practiced.

“I, Alpha Derek Hale, along with my co-Alpha, Scott McCall, grant you permission to stay on pack land and will have you in our pack on a probationary period until the time when it is further disused.” Damn, Derek was hot when he got all Alpha-y on people. 

Stiles started to walk forward, knowing that the traditional, professional part was over, “Alright Theo, why don’t I introduce you to the pack,” Stiles grabbed Theo by the arm and moved him slightly forwards so that he could properly greet the pack. 

\--

Once all the introductions were done, Stiles had asked Theo to come over so that he could help Theo to get caught up on the work he had missed before he had come to the school. They had started doing their work in the dining room with the rest of the pack. That had lasted all of 10 minutes before all of the pack was too nervous with Theo there. 

Stiles decides that it would be better if he took Theo up to his room, away from the other wolves. Once they had gotten to Stiles’ room Theo went to sit down on the bed and Stiles followed.

Stiles couldn’t quite pinpoint why he was so trusting of Theo, maybe it was because they were friends as kids, maybe it was because Theo had saved him. Stiles really didn’t think it was any of those, he thought it was probably because Theo didn’t know all the terrible things that he had done when he was possessed by the Nogitsune. 

\--

The longer Stiles had stayed next to Theo, the more tired he became. Stiles had felt extreme exhaustion before when he was forced to stay up for days because of the Nogitsune but that was nowhere as bad right now.

Stiles didn’t remember when, but eventually he was curled into Theo’s side and was falling asleep. The last thing he had remembered saying to Theo was, “That’s a really nice necklace.” It was a simple leather strap with a bright red cristal at the bottom.

It could have been the light but as Stiles was closing his eyes and drifting off he could have sworn that it started glowing.


	9. Nobody Wants to be Pitied, Derek

Derek hated how close Stiles had been with Theo the whole time he was over. Derek always loved that Stiles had gotten in the habit of scent marking but right now that hadit was going to make him lose his mind. Stiles unconsciously was putting his hands all over Theo, and even worse, Theo was doing it back. Derek was trying to growl as quietly as possible so that Stiles wouldn’t hear but even then that caused the betas to become uncomfortable. Then Stiles took Theo up to his room, Stiles didn’t let most of the pack into his room but Theo could go in the day after they met up again.

“Derek you need to calm down.” Scott had to know that wasn’t going to help.

“I am calm.” Derek retorted, obviously angry. It wasn’t like he could even pinpoint exactly why he was so angry, Stiles was talking to an old friend. A friend of the Pack. That’s all that Theo was. But then Derek thought about the fact that the bedrooms were soundproof to the point that werewolves couldn’t hear, that thought just made him all the more angry. 

The betas picked up on his aggression immediately and all turned their heads away, not wanting to anger their Alpha. Too bad his second was a little shit who didn’t know how to shut up. Peter smirked at Derek before he started speaking, “Derek’s just upset that Stiles’ affections are on someone other than him at the moment.”

Derek shot up from his position in his chair and flashed his red eyes at Peter. 

“Wouldn’t you want to spend time with the only person who doesn’t know that you were possessed?” 

That got Derek attention. Derek looked over to Lydia who was acting like that was the most easy to understand thing in the entire world. 

“If you could choose between the people who have seen you at your worst and had to help you for months because of how fucking shitty it was or an old friend who saved your life from something, that in the grand scheme of things isn’t the worst monster you’ve had to face, who would you pick?” She looked Derek dead in the eye, never wavering for a second. He knew what she was trying to get him to understand.

“You’re right.” Derek sighed and tried to relax himself. The Pack and Theo had an arrangement, even if Theo was to join the Pack later, Stiles was his Emissary. Derek knew that he was being selfish by wanting Stiles all to himself but he couldn’t bring himself to tell Theo to back off either, that would be unfair to both Stiles and Theo. 

The room was still tense, of course it was, the Alpha was tense. 

Soon the wolves hear Stiles’ bedroom door open and then close softly. A single pair of footsteps are coming down the stairs. Derek looks over to see Theo by himself descending the staircase. 

“Hey guys, Stiles passed out so I figured I should just let him sleep. I’ll see you all at school tomorrow.” Theo smiled, gave then a two fingered wave, and saw himself out the door.

Everyone was looking at each other with similar looks of confusion. Malia was the first one to speak up,”Did I hear him right?” She asked softly, looking the same way she does at her math work. 

“That depends,” Cora said, “did you also hear him say that Stiles just fell asleep?”

Scott looked excited, “That’s good right? I mean, he hasn’t done that since before the Nogitsune. Maybe that means he’s getting better.”

“Yeah,” Liam piped in, “maybe all those bad nights caught up with him.” Although Liam didn’t live in the house full time he had his own room, technically it was one of the guest rooms in the basement but he had claimed it as his own for when he moves in. He had spent multiple nights over and he, like everyone else, noticed that Stiles was always the last one to go to bed and the first one awake.

Derek needed to see Stiles for himself, see if he was asleep or if he was hurt. He knew that Stiles being hurt didn’t make any sense but he had to see. Derek dashed up the stairs, the pack following behind him. Once he got to Stiles’ door he gently grabbed the handle and pushed in. 

What the Pack did not see was anything hurting Stiles, Stiles tied up, Stiles bleeding out or dead. What they saw instead was a tall, skinny teenager partially on his side with his face pushed into his pillow, snoring slightly.

“What the actual fuck.” Jackson was the first of them to voice how weird this was.

Lydia put a finger to her lips and darted her head over to Stiles to tell him to quiet down. Ethan was the next one to speak, in a whisper this time. “What do we do? This is so unlike him.”

“I, for one, think that we should all let him sleep.” Peter stated, “I’ll cook dinner tonight and all of you will finish homework.”

They all looked over to the sleeping Stiles before nodding and going back downstairs. Derek couldn’t look away from Stiles, he tried to think about the last time that he saw Stiles sleeping. It was probably back before they all moved into the house, before the Nogitsune. It was probably one of the many times that Derek would go to Stiles’ bedroom window to check in on him. At first he only did that after big fights or when there was a ‘Big Bad of The Week’ on their hands but eventually he couldn’t sleep unless he saw that Stiles was safe.

That was probably when Derek realized that he was absolutely in love with the loud mouthed, clumsy and loyal to a fault Stiles Stilinski.


	10. A Good Dream and A Magic Guitar

Stiles was dreaming. He knew that. 

He was dreaming, and it was a good dream.

He wasn’t in the hospital getting the news that he had Frontotemporal Dementia. 

He wasn’t at Deaton’s clinic, stabbing Scott and loving the sounds of pain his best friend made as he twisted the blade in his side.

He wasn’t watching as he ordered the Oni to stab Allison and watching her call out for Issac while Scott caught her.

No. 

He was with the Pack. The Pack and Theo.

Theo was a part of the Pack and everyone was happy. Nobody was looking at him with pity as he used the Nogitsune’s magic.

Wait… What?

Stiles was using magic in his dream. It wasn’t overpowering him like when he was possessed or just responding to his anger like when he lit the Nematon on fire. He was using magic to clean up a mess that Isaac made as he accidentally dropped his plate going to the table. 

He knew that this was only a dream but a part of him wished that he could do that in real life. 

He wanted his possession to be more than a terrible thing that happened to him. He wanted that power and he wanted to use it to help, not to hurt.

Stiles woke up slowly, for the first time in over a year he wasn't woken up by fear or pain. He woke up and looked over to the clock on his bedside table, 5:56 pm. 

Had Stiles slept while the Pack was awake?

SHIT! Had he fallen asleep talking to Theo? 

Stiles got himself out of his bed and started to go downstairs. The Pack were all doing homework and Peter was cooking dinner. Stiles almost wanted to be offended, he should be cooking.

“Hey guys.” he said, sitting himself down on one of the couches. 

Malia looked up from her work. Pencil in mouth, she just let it drop rather than taking it out, “Oh thank god you’re up, no one is as good as you at explaining this.” She motioned for him to sit down next to her. 

He helped her out for a bit before turning to the homework that he had started with Theo and apparently abandoned to sleep. Soon Peter was telling them that dinner was ready and that they better get it while it was hot.

They all sat at the comically large table and started talking. At some point Theo got brought up, “He seems different and yet the exact same as when we knew him before.” Erica said.

“I hear that lycanthropy can do that to a person.” Stiles looked pointedly at her. 

She actually looked slightly offended at that, “Oh and how would you know what lycanthropy does to a person, Sleeping Beauty?”

Stiles was about to say that, yes he did seeing as he was the one to help Scott when he was turned into a creacher of the night when Cora begane speaking.

“You know,” Cora started, “most of the time when someone brings a hot boy to their room they do things in the bed other than sleeping.” 

Stiles felt a deep blush crawl onto his cheeks. Peter decided to help put Stiles out of his misery, “I don’t think we need to be getting into what Stiles and his friend got up to, seeing as it was probably just studying anyway.”

“Thanks Peter.” Stiles whispered shyly, absolutely hating his friends. Then Stiles remembered that he hadn’t seen his hoodie since that morning when he had put it out in the preserve for the wolves to track, “Hey, where’d you guys put my hoodie after you found it.” He looked all around but his gaze lingered on Jackson because odds were that he had found it. 

The room went silent. Stiles instantly started worrying, “Guys?”

Scott was the first one to speak up, “We uh, so the thing is…” he trailed off.

Stiles looked around and none of the bitten wolves, the ones who needed the most practice, were looking him in the eye, “You couldn’t find it?” Stiles asked.

“We all found the path that you used. We just lost your scent at one point and we couldn’t find anything so we thought that you might not have left anything as some sort of test.” Issac answered sheepishly.

Stiles then looked over to Ethan, Aiden and Cora and raised his eyebrows at them. 

“We couldn’t find anything either.” Aiden supplied.

Ethan nodded, “You must have hid it really well.”

“Yeah,” Stiles agreed, “That’s kind of, the whole point. Everyone ready to go back out after dinner?” He smiled angrily.

All of the teen wolves nodded and Stiles looked over to Peter and Derek. Peter looked back, “Are you expecting us too?” 

Stiles just raised his eyebrows and nodded. 

After that the rest of dinner was pretty awkward.

\--

Most of the wolves had already run ahead of Stiles, only the born wolves (minus Malia, she thought more like a bitten wolf because of all the time she spent af a coyote) had stayed behind walking with Stiles.

Stiles followed the path that he had taken that morning, trying to stay on a straighter path because that would take much less time. Soon he was by the river, he looked to see if there was a better way than to go trudging through the water. Seeing nothing he sighed and started the wet walk through the water.

When he got to the first tree that he climbed he saw all the betas looking around to see where he could have gone after stopping by the tree. 

“Let me ask you all a question,” Stiles started, “did any of you think that humans can, in fact, climb trees?”

They all looked away, he knew he was getting angrier than he should but he couldn’t help it. Something about today just made him feel different, angry. The anger felt familiar, but not his own.

Not his anger. Shit.

He drums his thumb along his fingers, counting them. 10. Flip them over and count with the opposite index finger. 10. Take a deep breath. In.. 2, 3, 4. Out.. 2, 3, 4.

“Sorry.” He whispered. Stiles then went up to the first tree he had climbed that morning, there was still a little bit of blood from where he had scraped his hands. He silently looked up to the thicker branches that he had been able to walk across, following underneath he walked to the final tree. Looking up he didn’t see the bright red fabric of his Mother’s hoodie. 

“Why’d you stop?” Scott asked. 

Stiles blinked up where he had left one of the possessions that he felt were the last of his Mother. God he was such an idiot. Why the hell did he think that leaving it in the middle of the woods would be ok? Stiles finally spoke up, “I don’t understand. I left it right here.”

“Mayde you have the wrong tree.” Isaac offered up. 

Stiles was about to say that he was sure but Derek cut him off, “Do you smell him on any other tree near here?” he asked planly.

All the teens just looked down, hating how angry their Alpha and Emissary were. 

“Whatever,” Stiles started, “let’s just go home. I still have homework to do anyways.” With that he satiated to journey back to the house. He didn’t care if the wolves were following him or not he just wanted to go home and play his guitar, now it, along with his jeep, were the last of his mother all because he was an idiot. 

\-- 

He came through the back door of the house to see Allison and Lydia on the couch, “Hey Stiles, find it?” came from Allison where she was seated in between Lydia and Danny.

“Nope, I think they’re all still searching. That or they decided that they didn’t want to bug me when I'm already mad.” 

Lydia looked like she was about to say something, probably something about doing a ‘Team Human’ activity to make him feel better. He didn’t care enough to listen, he just walked up to his room and went straight to his office.

Closing the door he looked over to the guitar in the corner of the room. He grabbed it off the stand and flipped it over to look at the bright red handprints on the back. His Mom's hand was smaller than what his was now but it still looked massive compared to his 7 year old self’s hand.

It had been 10 years ago, his Mother had wanted him to learn how to play an instrument and the lessons that she would give him was the only time that he could sit still. After he had finally learnt his Mother's favorite song in full she had said that they should commemorate it. She grabbed a red acrylic paint from her art supplies and put it all over his hand and then pressed it to the back of her guitar. She then did the same to her own hand and then proceeded to put the paint that was still on her hand on Stiles’ face which only ended in a paint fight. Soon the Sheriff came home and found his son covered in paint and running behind him to hide behind his legs.

“What happened here?” He asked his son.

Stiles immediately started smiling like he had won gold at the olympics, “I learnt Mom’s song!”

Just then Claudia walked into the room, his father then turned his attention to her, “Since when was paint required when learning the guitar?” He lent in and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Mom started it!” Stiles quickly yelled.

Noah just gave her a pointed look, “Ok, ok. Maybe I did start it,” she conceded quickly, “But I was just trying to clean my hand, he’s the one that got out other colours and aimed for clothes.”

Noah just shook his head and grabbed Stiles and Claudia, not caring one bit that paint would be getting on his deputies uniform, “That’s what you get when you won’t stop calling him Mischief,” he then ruffled Stiles’ hair, “why don’t you go show me the song.”

Stiles nodded and shot off like a rocket to grab the instrument. 

Stiles missed days like that, he missed his mom. He was glad to still have the memories in the form of her old Yamaha. 

It didn’t take long to think of the song to play, he knew that playing anything other than his Mother’s favorite song, the song he learnt that day, would be an injustice. Soon the tune of ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ was filling the room and Stiles felt calm.

\--

As Stiles let the final coard of the song ring out he smiled to himself. He turned the guitar over one last time to put his hand over his own from 10 years ago, closed his eyes and wished that he could have that day again.

He pulled his hand off and went to put it back on it’s stand. He stopped himself when he saw that there were now three handprints. The two that had always been the and under his old handprint there was now a black one that was bigger than his mothers. He put his hand over it and they were the exact same size. 

What. The. Fuck.


	11. The Nogitsune Debate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning there is a panic attack in this chapter.  
> It is not in detail and there are indicators for when it starts and when it is over if you would like to skip it. the only thing that you would be missing is a bit of Derek's thoughts on Stiles

“Let me ask you all a question,” Stiles said, looking from a tree that had a small bit of his blood on it to all the wolves, “did any of you think that humans can, in fact, climb trees?” 

Derek could tell that Stiles had climbed it but he also had that knowledge from bandaging his hands that morning. Derek could smell the anger on Stiles, he could almost see it coming off of him in waves until it suddenly turned to fear as it often did when he got too angry. He saw Stiles do the same thing he did whenever he thought that The Nogitsune’s emotions were taking over his own, he counted his fingers, only twice and then he took a deep breath and went back to what he was doing before. 

“Sorry.” Stiles whispered. Derek watched as Stiles looked up into the trees and followed the branches until he made it to another tree that smelled like him. Stiles was still, looking at this tree, almost as if it was missing something.

“Why’d you stop?” Scott asked. 

Stiles blinked up at the tree, his scent turning bitter with hatred. Derek could tell that the anger now wasn’t directed at the teens that hadn’t found his sweatshirt but instead at himself. Stiles finally spoke up, “I don’t understand. I left it right here.”

All the wolves could smell the emotions, that was probably why they didn’t say anything for a good few beats. “Mayde you have the wrong tree.” Isaac offered up. 

Derek could tell that Stiles was about to speak and normally he would just let him say what he wanted but he felt like he needed to teach at least something to his betas rather than keep on letting Stiles take over in their training, “Do you smell him on any other tree near here?” he asked planly.

All the teens just looked down, hating how angry their Alpha and Emissary were. 

“Whatever,” Stiles started, “let’s just go home. I still have homework to do anyways.” With that he satiated to journey back to the house. He didn’t wait for any of them, just started walking and Derek just looked over to the others and raised an eyebrow to tell them to get back to looking.

\--

They had been searching for Stiles’ hoodie for about an hour when Jackson spoke up, “I don’t understand what’s so important about some sweater, why can’t we just buy him a new one?” Of course he was going to complain about training, he always did even if he always put in the most effort and tried to be the best.

“I can’t believe that I’m about to say this,” Cora piped up, “but I think I agree with Jackson.”

Aidan nodded behind her and then Derek heard multiple agreements from various Pack members. “We can’t just get a new one.” Scott said while not stopping looking around.

“And why is that?” Erica quipped.

Scott stopped to look at his Betas, “Last I checked you can’t get a replacement for your dead Mother’s belongings.” 

Every one of their eyes bugged out of their heads until they got over the initial shock of learning that information. 

“If it was his mom’s then why would he leave it in the middle of the preserve?” Came Boyd’s voice. 

“Confidence in his Pack, perhaps.” Peter answered.

“It doesn't matter why,” Derek started, “but it’s a school night and I know for a fact that many of you still haven’t finished your homework. Let’s go back to the house and we can try again tomorrow.”

Scott looked like he was about to protest until Isaac spoke to him, “Common man, you said you needed Lydia’s help in Biology.” Scott nodded and they all started the run back to the house.

\-- 

As Lydia saw the pack come in she immediately started going off on them, “What the hell did you all do? He literally just walked in and went straight to his room.”

Allison nodded behind her, “It was really weird, why was he so mad? I’ve never seen him that mad while he was… you know, him”

“All that anger plus knowing a whole new language.” Aiden said. 

“And don’t forget how closed off he’s been acting.” Ethan added.

“Almost makes you wonder if he’s fully Stiles.” Danny finished.

Scott looked startled at that, “No. No way. It’s Stiles, we would know if the Nogitsune was back.” He looked like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

“I mean,” Erica started, “he was acting jittery at school. More than usual I mean.”

Isaac was the next one to speak, “He’s always jittery, the only times I’ve seen him still is when he was paralyzed and when he was possessed. Jittery is good.”

“He was jittery in Eichen. Maybe he’s not possessed again, he’s just almost possessed.” there was so much hope behind Malia’s voice.

“But the Nogitsune could be playing the long game.” Cora added.

“Why are you all so against Stiles?” Scott asked.

That got the room moving, “We are not against Stiles, we’re worried about almost dying again.” came from Aiden.

“Don’t forget that we were the ones that figured out Stiles was being possessed the first time.” Ethan yelled to Scott.

Scotts eyes burned red at that, “There is no first time about it. That was the only time. Stiles is fine.”

“And what if he isn’t and you just can’t see that. Shouldn’t you be looking out for him? You are his best friend, right?” Erica stood her ground with Boyd hovering behind her and resting his hand on the small of her back.

“You’re his Catwoman, shouldn’t you be on his side?”

“There are no sides in this Scott.” Allison spoke.

“Tomorrow Peter and I will go look for the Nemeton and make sure that the Nogitsune is still locked away.” Derek said in an attempt to end the conversation. He couldn’t help but to think that Stiles was acting different. There was no way that the Nogitsune was free again though. Checking tomorrow will just be a precaution.

“Whatever,” Scott said, “I’m gonna go check on him.” With that Scott made his way up to Stiles’ room.

The Pack all went into their groups, mostly they all went to the tv and put on a random movie to play as they all finished their homework.

Derek listened from his spot leaning on the kitchen counter to Scott’s heavy footfalls. Scott made it up to Stiles’ bedroom door fairly quickly, when he got there he knocked and waited a few beats before talking, “Hey Stiles,” he knocked again, “Dude I’m so sorry. I know you’re probably beating yourself up right now and I won’t allow that.”

Derek could hear that Scott’s heartbeat was steadily going up and up. He was probably worried about why Stiles wasn’t answering. He started talking again, “Stiles, bro I need you to open the door. We don’t have to talk or anything but you smell so sad in there, I just want to help man.”

A soft thud of Scotts forehead connecting to the door made its way into Derek’s ear, had he not been invading this personal moment he definitely wouldn’t have heard it. Scott sighed, “Look Stiles, I’m not gonna let you wallow in here so I’m coming in.”

The handle to the door was twisted softly before a slight squeak of the hinges filled Derek’s ears. Derek knew the second that Scott figured out what was going on with Stiles, the whole house knew, humans and all. 

“Stiles!” a sharp intake of breath, “Stiles, Stiles I know you don’t like us in your office but please just come over to the door and let me in.” No response, Derek had no idea what was going on and he didn’t like it. He decided to go check on them.

When he got to the second floor he could finally hear everything in Stiles’ room. The sound of Stiles laboured breaths and his thundering heart rate were all that was coming into Derek’s ears. He ran the rest of the way to his mates bedroom. 

*~Start of Panic Attack~*

“Stiles! Please!” Scott was basically yelling at the door before he turned to the door and yelled downstairs, “Danny, Lydia, Allison, Someone come that can break the mountain ash line!”

Soon the whole Pack was running up the stairs. They had let the humans up first because they were the ones that were called. Derek couldn’t stop listening to his Mates heart. Too fast, his wolf supplied. 

“What the hell is going on?” Lydia asked at the concerned faces of those with super hearing.  
Jackson pushed her towards the door, “He’s having a panic attack in there. If I didn’t know any better I’d think that his heart was about to explode,” Jackson said all too calmly.

“God! Just open the door!” Came from Erica, Malia and Boyd growling in agreeance behind her.

Lydia rushed towards the door and opened it as quickly as she could, Derek was the first one and didn’t even take the time to look around the room to go to Stiles. He was on the floor with his head in his hands, trying to cover himself with his legs. He looked so small and Derek’s wolf howled for control.

He didn’t let it take over, no matter how much he wanted to. Instead he grabbed Stiles head and forced him to look into Derek’s eyes. He started talking to him, “It’s ok Stiles, I’m right here ok? You’re ok, just breathe for me, ok?” 

“He really doesn't look good,” came from behind. Derek didn’t care who it was, too many people there wouldn’t help.

He turned to his Betas and co-Alpha, “Out. Everyone,” he growled out. He heard the shuffled footsteps of them leaving the entire bedroom and closing the door that Derek could touch, probably to give Stiles some privacy.

Derek kept holding Stiles and talking to him, soon his breathing was slowing down and tears started to spring from Stiles’ eyes.

*~End of Panic Attack~*

Derek pulled Stiles into his lap and Stiles’ face went straight to the crook of Derek’s neck. Derek hated the smell of his tears, his sadness. Derek wished he could make it better but there was nothing he could do except to hold him close and comfort him in any way he could.

Derek could tell that it would take awhile for Stiles to stop crying, in the meantime Derek looked around the office. He saw the abandoned guitar right next to where he had found Stiles, paintings all over the walls, the whole room smelled like fresh paint. Derek followed the smell of the newest piece and then he saw it, ‘A Wolf In Shining Armor’ just like Lydia had said about Theo.

The wolf in the painting had yellow, Beta, eyes and his fur looked similar to the colour of Theo’s hair. Derek hated it, Peter was right. He should have told him how he felt before it came to this.

_‘He’s human, so if you don’t he’ll find someone else.’_

And Stiles had fallen in love with Theo. An outsider to the Pack had taken his Mates heart from him.

Derek had to look away from the wolf painting, his eyes landed on one of the Pack. They already had a photo of this moment, out in front of the house right after it was rebuilt. The only difference between the photo and the painting is that all the wolves had their eyes open. Derek wished that he had more pictures of his old Pack with their eyes not getting in the way so when they took that picture they had made sure that they all closed them tight. 

“I’m sorry,” Derek felt the movement on his shoulder more than he heard Stiles, “I shouldn’t have freaked out over nothing. I’m sorry.”

Derek was taken back by that, “It’s ok Stiles, I don’t mind.” He could tell that Stiles didn’t believe him. He wished on the moon that he could make Stiles see how perfect he was, how he wasn’t a burden. He couldn’t do that before and he especially can’t do it now. Now Stiles had Theo, Derek would just have to deal with that. 

Even if Derek would let Stiles love Theo, there was no way he was going to let Theo love Stiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to say it but I've caught a bad case of writer's block so I will be taking a bit of a break while I try to get my brain juices flowing again. I'll try to update y'all as soon as possible and I hope you enjoyed <3


End file.
